Erkki Huhtamo describes interactive art as being hands-on. The many different works categorized as interactive art could be polar opposites but still have one thing in common. They are all installations open to the public that required physical activation by a viewer to function. These installations would require the viewer to actively participate in the exhibit to see the work in completion. An example of this work would be 21 Balançoires or 21 Swings designed by Daily Tous Les Jours. This installation displayed in Montreal, Quebec, exhibits 21 swings as a giant instrument. Each swing triggers different notes when in motion. So for people to understand what the installation is really about, they would have to sit on the swings and experience the music created by their own movements first hand.
Database as Symbolic Form by Lev Manovich discusses the database as a collection of data. There are many different forms of databases like hierarchal, network, and object-oriented. Each database has their own methods of categorization. Because many of these databases add new elements consistently, they become a collection of things. They do not have a narrative since materials and elements keep changing. A work of art that follows this idea is a music video by a girl group called Girl’s Day. The song is titled Hug Me Once and is a multi-part video. Like a database, it is a collection of information because there are different choices you can make that lead to different destinations during certain parts in the video. It has a slight narrative if you watch the videos from the start and make choices till the end but its not necessary. It is possible to just pick one of the videos randomly and still hear the full song.
Marvin Minsky compares the human mind to towers, as they are composed of processes like blocks. People learn many basic skills as they progress in life and those become embedded into their consciousness. In this manner, people are similar to machines as they think and perform actions almost mechanically. A person’s actions are an accumulation of many different thoughts and skills they have learned put together. But because it is a mixture of processes, they cannot always be explained or only a part is explainable. Southern Korean artist Wang Zi Won constructs mechanical Buddhas that appear to be lost in meditation. The many small parts constructing each figure allows it to move in repetitive motions like a machine. But like Minsky ’s article, seeing the whole process does not necessarily mean we know how it is functioning. Each little piece has a specific function that is unknown to the viewer but still creates an overall understanding.